Is Competition Bad?

Abstract

Thoughtful observers worry these days that the competitive model commercial interests are introducing into medical care will compromise the quality of care that has been upheld by the medical profession during this century.^{1 , 2} Yet the relations between quality and the underlying paradigms of competition and profession have not been carefully examined.The fundamental nature of a profession is indicated by the original meaning of the word: a vow — solemn, altruistic, and honorable — made upon entering a religious order.³ It took 300 years for this 13th-century meaning to broaden to include a vocation of professed knowledge, as in Bacon's . . .